Technology adoption in the classroom
In this commentary article at the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Judith Tabron provides some interesting commentary on the adoption rates of technology in the classroom. Here are a few quotes:
I’m surprised at how low the adoption rates of technology really are…The trouble is that it’s going to take a long time for academe to figure out what to do with all the technology it already has — and we need time and money to do that…We will teach differently only when we’ve tried a lot of different things, and we must expect to encounter both hits and misses along the way…If an institution truly wishes to encourage innovations in its curriculum, it must devote resources to those innovations.
I agree that the problem isn’t faculty interest, although there is no denying that in some cases that can be a factor. As with any new technology the ’so what’ factor is crucial. My definition of ’so what’ is where the new technology must off some significant improvement over current practice, where the benefit exceeds the costs of adoption. Dollar costs are probably the least important — to the individual the costs of re-learning, experimenting, inconvenience and risk of failure weigh must higher. And I strongly agree with Tabron’s points that the institution must be committed to a process of experimentation, analysis and discussion that involves both technical and teaching staff. It needs to be a process where the group builds a vision of what they might achieve, try it out, and then regroup to adjust that vision and try again. It takes time, resources, and dedication.
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